1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer, a management support apparatus and a management method for notifying an external remote maintenance system if a trouble which occurs since the power of a computer system such as a server is turned on until an application is started through a network interface. The present invention particularly relates to a computer, a management support apparatus and a management method for notifying an external remote maintenance system of the occurrence of a trouble by adding a support board to an integrated management panel board which monitors a system.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Conventionally, if a high-level IBM-PC architecture standardized in the industry involved is adopted to a server machine or the like, the function of system management is insufficient due to the PC architecture and is not standardized. Due to this, it is necessary to add a system management function individually of the server machine or the like. Such a system management function is conventionally provided by an integrated management panel board (or IMP board). The IMP board conducts on/off-controls the power of a system, monitors the state of the system using a temperature sensor and a voltage sensor provided on a main baseboard, controls a fan and others. Further, when the power is turned on, the baseboard conducts a self diagnosis processing (POST diagnosis) and a BOOT processing. When these start processings are normally ended, a system application is started and the server system turns into an operable state. Conventionally, if a trouble during the baseboard start processings occurs at the time of turning on the power of the system, the IMP board detects the trouble and displays the occurrence of the trouble on a liquid crystal display panel or an LED. A user's side administrator, therefore, recognizes the type of the trouble from the liquid crystal display panel or the LED and notifies a service company of the direct cause of the trouble. The maintenance worker of the service company is dispatched to a server machine having the trouble in response to the user's notification and judges the state of the trouble from the display of the IMP board. In addition, the maintenance worker acquires a system log (BIOS log) stored in a nonvolatile memory provided on the baseboard, clears up the cause of the trouble and conducts necessary repair operations. On the other hand, if a hardware trouble such as one-bit error or two-bit error occurs during the operation of the system after the application is normally started, the IMP board detects such a hardware trouble. Then, if necessary, using an automatic notification function which operates as an application, an external remote maintenance system is automatically notified of an alarm message indicating the occurrence of the hardware trouble. Further, since it is essential to make clear the root cause of the system trouble as soon as possible, it is also possible to read a system log and notify the remote maintenance system of the system log as well as the alarm message.
However, if a trouble occurs and the system is down in a start processing phase before the application is started, e.g., in a self diagnosis processing or BOOT processing phase, it is impossible for the application to automatically notify the remote maintenance system of the trouble. Due to this, in case of system down while starting the system, the administrator of the user system can only notify the maintenance company of the direct cause of the trouble over the telephone or the like and it is difficult to make clear the root cause of the trouble based on the notified information. In addition, in order to acquire the system log which is a clue for clearing up the root cause, it is necessary that the maintenance worker restarts the system to which abnormality occurs and then acquires the system log. Thus, it disadvantageously takes time and labor to acquire the system log.